What a difference a year makes - filly who caused havoc on highway gets off mark

Bold And Bossy, the daughter of Strong Mandate who ran loose on a US highway last August but escaped without serious injury, got off the mark at the second time of asking at Thistledown in Ohio on Monday.

The then two-year-old had been due to make her debut at Ellis Park in Kentucky a year ago, when she unseated her rider, dashed outside the track and then ran loose on a highway before being apprehended.

The Michael Ann Ewing-trained filly ran through a variety of different areas surrounding Ellis Park for approximately 30 minutes.

Video of Bold And Bossy running down the highway was captured on a cell phone by at least one passerby and uploaded to social media.

Bold And Bossy, whose sire won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, is a Kentucky-bred out of Successful Appeal’s daughter Happybirthdaybaby, and has obviously inherited some of her parents’ talent, with the dam being a ten-time winner.

After finishing third in a maiden special weight on her debut at Belterra Park last month, Bold And Bossy went two better at Thistledown in the same type of contest, enjoying a perfect trip and being driven out by Malcolm Franklin to beat Purdy Pumkin in a field of five.

Whether Bold And Bossy will be better known for her performances on the racecourse rather than her antics outside Ellis Park remains to be seen, but she is heading in the right direction, as it were.

Speaking at the time of the drama 12 months ago, Ewing said: "Oh my god, we're so grateful that she's alive, that she didn't get hit by a car, that somebody didn't hit her and hurt themselves. It was just one of those freaky, crazy things.”

Fellow trainer Jack Hancock was among the rescue party and added: "Of course she had blinkers on, which didn't help the matter. She couldn't see anything beside her, so that made it a little worse trying to catch her.

“I've been here all my life and I've never seen one do a run like this, not that far and not that much highway. They usually don't go over the levee."

Read more

How we turned German racing around: TV presenter and auctioneer Thorsten Castle reveals all

James Thomas's June first-season sire assessment

Bellabel well worth the wait with major Stateside victory

Aga Khan camp delight as Tahiyra manages what big sis Tarnawa couldn't